Page 42 - Biblical Counseling I Textbook

6 A’s of Confession (See Appendix B)
• Admit to God (and to all who were harmed) that my actions were sinful.
• Agree with God that your sin is serious.
Do not diminish the significance of your sin by comparing it with other “lesser” sins but see all
sin as wicked in God’s eyes. Do not deflect responsibility for your sin by even subtly blaming
your actions on others or on your circumstances. Take full responsibility.
• Anguish over your sin.
Feel the weight of it in your soul and be truly sorrowful, not because of its consequences in your
life but because it dishonored your Lord and hurt others.
• Ask for forgiveness from the Lord and from those you directly harmed.
Do this in humility and without a demand or expectation of forgiveness but in an understanding
that you do not deserve to be forgiven. Do not simply say, “I’m sorry” but ask the other person
to forgive you.
• Accept the consequences.
Accept that whatever damage results from your sin or whatever privilege you lose, or whatever
resistance you feel is less than what you deserve and humbly accept it.
• Act to change.
Commit to changing by putting off the sinful attitudes, words, or actions, and by replacing them
with godly, loving actions (put on Christ).

Understanding forgiveness
What is forgiveness?
1. Forgiveness is a “letting go” or “carrying away”
ἀφίημι (apheime)
2. Forgiveness is a promise not to remember the offense against the person (Jer. 31:34; Ps. 79:8). We
do not continue to bring it up with the person. We do not bring it up with others. We do not dwell
on it in our own minds but choose to let it go.
3. Forgiveness is NOT necessarily forgetting, although the offense may very well be forgotten over
time.
4. Biblical forgiveness results in a movement toward the offender in kindness.

Is forgiveness conditional?
There are three ways to think of forgiveness:
• “Covering” a debt (1 Peter 4:8)

• “Positional” forgiveness (Ps. 32:1-2; 130:3-4; 1 Jn. 1:9, cf. 2:1-2).
• “Transactional” forgiveness (Ps. 32:3-5; 1 Jn. 1:9).
God’s positional forgiveness was conditioned upon Christ’s payment and not at all upon us (Heb.
9:19-28). Forgiveness is transacted with repentance and confession (Ps. 32:5; 1 Jn. 1:9)

How are we to forgive?

• We must forgive as God has forgiven us (Matt. 18:23-35; Eph. 4:32)
• We must stand ready to forgive—i.e., positional forgiveness.

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